Giovanna Bonanno

Giovanna Bonanno (c. 1713 – 30 July 1789) was an alleged Italian witch and professional poisoner known as la vecchia dell'aceto, "The Old Vinegar Lady.

The typical client was a woman with a lover; she bought the first dose to give her husband stomach pains, the second to get him to hospital, and the third to kill him.

In the Zisa quarter in Palermo, several suspicious cases had occurred.

The wife of a baker, a nobleman who had wasted his family's fortune, and another baker's wife (who was thought to have had an affair with a gardener) had all become ill.[1][2] One day, a friend of Bonanno's, Maria Pitarra, was delivering a poison when she realized that the victim was to be the son of a friend, and decided to warn the mother.

The mother made an order for the poison herself, and when Bonanno arrived, she was arrested.